Saya Tsuruta

Saya Tsuruta (Japanese: 鶴田沙綾 / つるたさや Tsuruta Saya) is a designer and illustrator for the Pokémon games and the Pokémon Trading Card Game. After graduating from Tama Art University,^[2] her first game credits were on Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, though her contributions are unknown as she's only listed under Special Thanks. By the release of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, Tsuruta had become a graphic designer, creating all of the location previews in the game, stating that it took a lot of hard work.^[3]

Saya Tsuruta in 2009^[1]

Designs

Pokémon

The following is a list of Pokémon designed by Tsuruta.

Artwork

Official artwork

This is a collection of official Pokémon artwork drawn by Tsuruta.

Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver

Tsuruta illustrated all of the location previews for Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver.^[3]

Location preview for Sprout Tower (Morning)
Location preview for Sprout Tower (Day)
Location preview for Sprout Tower (Night)
Location preview for Dark Cave's Route 31 Entrance (Morning)
Location preview for Dark Cave's Route 31 Entrance (Day)
Location preview for Dark Cave's Route 31 Entrance (Night)
Location preview for Dark Cave's Route 45 Entrance (Morning)
Location preview for Dark Cave's Route 45 Entrance (Day)
Location preview for Dark Cave's Route 45 Entrance (Night)
Location preview for the Ruins of Alph (Morning)
Location preview for the Ruins of Alph (Day)
Location preview for the Ruins of Alph (Night)
Location preview for Union Cave (Morning)
Location preview for Union Cave (Day)
Location preview for Union Cave (Night)
Location preview for the Slowpoke Well (Morning)
Location preview for Slowpoke Well (Day)
Location preview for Slowpoke Well (Night)
Location preview for Ilex Forest (Morning)
Location preview for Ilex Forest (Day)
Location preview for Ilex Forest (Evening)
Location preview for Ilex Forest (Night)
Location preview for the National Park (Morning)
Location preview for the National Park (Day)
Location preview for the National Park (Evening)
Location preview for the National Park (Night)
Location preview for the Burned Tower (Morning)
Location preview for the Burned Tower (Day)
Location preview for the Burned Tower (Evening)
Location preview for the Burned Tower (Night)
Location preview for the Bell Tower (Morning)
Location preview for the Bell Tower (Day)
Location preview for the Bell Tower (Evening)
Location preview for the Bell Tower (Night)
Location preview for the Whirl Islands (Morning)
Location preview for the Whirl Islands (Day)
Location preview for the Whirl Islands (Night)
Location preview for Mt. Mortar (Morning)
Location preview for Mt. Mortar (Day)
Location preview for Mt. Mortar (Evening)
Location preview for Mt. Mortar (Night)
HGSS Ice Cave-Morning.png

Location preview for the Ice Path (Morning)
HGSS Ice Cave-Day.png

Location preview for the Ice Path (Day)
HGSS Ice Cave-Night.png

Location preview for the Ice Path (Night)
Location preview for the Dragon's Den (Morning)
Location preview for the Dragon's Den (Day)
Location preview for the Dragon's Den (Night)
Location preview for Mt. Silver Cave (Morning)
Location preview for Mt. Silver Cave (Day)
Location preview for Mt. Silver Cave (Night)
Location preview for Tohjo Falls (Morning)
Location preview for Tohjo Falls (Day)
Location preview for Tohjo Falls (Night)
Location preview for Victory Road (Morning)
Location preview for Victory Road (Day)
Location preview for Victory Road (Night)
Location preview for Viridian Forest (Morning)
Location preview for Viridian Forest (Day)
Location preview for Viridian Forest (Evening)
Location preview for Viridian Forest (Night)
Location preview for Diglett's Cave (Morning)
Location preview for Diglett's Cave (Day)
Location preview for Diglett's Cave (Night)
Location preview for Mt. Moon (Morning)
Location preview for Mt. Moon (Day)
Location preview for Mt. Moon (Evening)
Location preview for Mt. Moon (Night)
Location preview for Cerulean Cave (Morning)
Location preview for Cerulean Cave (Day)
Location preview for Cerulean Cave (Night)
Location preview for Rock Tunnel (Morning)
Location preview for Rock Tunnel (Day)
Location preview for the Rock Tunnel (Night)
Location preview for the Seafoam Islands (Morning)
Location preview for the Seafoam Islands (Day)
Location preview for the Seafoam Islands (Night)

Other official artwork

Pokémon Café Pikachu Sweets art for the 2023 World Championships^[7]
Pokémon Café Pikachu Sweets art of Jirachi^[8]
Hokkaido Daisuki Discovery Corps Vulpix sweets^[9]

Cards illustrated

There are 126 cards illustrated by Tsuruta. For a complete list of cards she has illustrated, go here.

Games

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (2006) - Special Thanks
Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver (2009) - Graphic Design
Pokémon Black and White (2010) - Pokémon Character Design, 2-D Dot Graphics
Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 (2012) - Pokémon Character Design, 2-D Dot Graphics
Pokémon X and Y (2013) - Pokémon Characters Design, UI Graphic Design
Pokémon Sun and Moon (2016) - Pokémon Characters Design
Pokémon Sword and Shield (2019) - Pokémon Design

Trivia

Almost every single Pokémon TCG artwork done by Saya Tsuruta contains a hidden image of a Poké Ball in the background. The only exceptions are as follows:
- Tsuruta's Shiny Vault cards from Hidden Fates, Shining Fates, and Paldean Fates (which use a plain white background with generic Shiny sparkle effects).
- The Yokohama's Pikachu cards (which use a generic striped background).
- The SWSH Black Star Promos Pikachu V-UNION (a collaboration between Tsuruta and 24 other artists; the cards use a generic gradient background).
- Paldean Wooper from Paldea Evolved (according to Tsuruta in an apology, the Poké Ball in this card had "rolled off the frame").^[10]
Tsuruta's favorite Pokémon is Vulpix.^[11]

External links

References

Pokémon designers

Emi Ando • Hitoshi Ariga • Kanako Eo • Hiroki Fuchino • Motofumi Fujiwara
Misaki Hashimoto • Mana Ibe • Asuka Iwashita • Tomohiro Kitakaze • Fumie Kittaka
Yusuke Kozaki • Kazuyuki Kurashima • Lee HyunJung • Megumi Mizutani • Shigeki Morimoto
Keiko Moritsugu • Kensaku Nabana • Atsuko Nishida • Yusuke Ohmura • Tomohiko Ohkubo
Muneo Saitō • Ken Sugimori • take • Reiko Tanoue • Aimi Tomita • Kenkichi Toyama
Saya Tsuruta • James Turner • Takao Unno • Emi Yoshida • Hironobu Yoshida

[1] (December 4, 2009). "ＨＧ・ＳＳ語っちゃいます！その7" GAME FREAK Official Website (archived).

[2] Saya Tsuruta's Twitter account. Posted on April 8, 2023. (archive)

[HGSSLocationPreviews-3] 3.0 ^3.1 Saya Tsuruta's Twitter account. Posted on April 24, 2023. (archive)

[AudinoTwitter-4] 4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 ^4.3 Saya Tsuruta's Twitter account. Posted on May 24, 2019.

[Saya2021-5] 5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 Saya Tsuruta's Twitter account. Posted on June 18, 2021.

[6] Saya Tsuruta's Twitter account. Posted on Dec 14, 2019.

[7] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20230905111212/https://twitter.com/saya_tsuruta/status/1688733595819704320/photo/1

[8] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20230905111230/https://twitter.com/saya_tsuruta/status/1687310766863785984/photo/1

[9] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20230905111224/https://twitter.com/saya_tsuruta/status/1687027173021097984/photo/1

[10] Saya Tsuruta's Twitter account. Posted on March 10, 2023.

[11] Saya Tsuruta's Twitter account. Posted on Feb 21, 2021

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